Best Hallucinations Thread

Nurses General Nursing

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Cmon, what's some of the good stuff?

I had a patient who spoke only Russian and finally when I was assigned to him, I think I might have been the first person who understood him (I speak Russian). Turns out he'd been hallucinating for God knows how long! It was sort of sweet because he was comforted by the baby bear and his mama bear in the corner. Bears are a common animal in Russian folklore. One of my favorite residents got her nickname 'Baby Bear' that way because the patient pointed right at her to indicate where he thought he was seeing it.

I had another patient who hadn't slept in days and was demanding every sedative/narcotic/benzo we could give but fighting terribly to stay awake so we couldn't say she was too sedated for the next dose. It was nuts. By the time she had a psychotic break, she was accusing me of plotting to run away with her boyfriend and that there were puppies in the hallway.

That also reminds me of the lady who said she watched a wedding procession in the hallway.

There are so many of these, right?

Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

Twenty years ago (before nursing) I had a new patient in the clinic for eye discharge (blocked tear duct-infected). She was a mess, hadn't slept, a scarf wrapped around her hair. She had a large magnifying glass in her hand. She walked up to me and said, "Don't you see them?"

She said she had worms crawling out of her knuckles and her eyes. Some eye medicine, a minor eye procedure and a psyche referral = one happy patient. :up:

I think it would be awful to have hallucinations especially with bugs or worms.

Gross! :yuck: (Says the nurse who works with eyeballs. ;) )

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Specializes in Med./Surg., Diabetes, Med. ICU, home hea.

Back in the "day," a young man in his early 30's, nearing D.T. status, perspiring, wild eyed, girl friend unable to comfort. States he drank "2 bottles" of wine per day (r i g h t). As "green" as I was, I KNEW this guy was going to "go off" in a minute or two. He kept looking over my shoulder... I asked him what he was looking at. He told me there was a knife poised in the air, aimed at him and he KNEW it was going to stab him. Damn! I remember my crazy psych nursing instructor telling us to NOT "feed into their delusions." What the heck... I turned, grabbed (at thin air), went to the door, threw (what ever was NOT in my hand) out the door and closed it. He thanked me and went off to sleep. Psychiatric emergency avoided, getting beat up avoided, 45 minutes of documentation avoided.

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My favorite was the little old man with dementia who kept calling me into his room on night shift. He was absolutely convinced that there were bad guys roaming the halls, just waiting to catch us nurses and murder us brutally. I finally told him that the cops were on the way and that we all had safe places to hide, and he calmed down and went to sleep. It was really touching that he was so worried about us.

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I was still a nursing student at the time, but I had a DT patient in soft restraints who swore I was his sister. He kept asking me to go to the store and get a bottle of wine and a pack of smokes and that we could share them. Of course, me still being the nursing student tried and tried to re-orientate him, but it never worked. When asked "do you know where you are" he would answer "in outer space". I finally told him I wasn't 18 and couldn't buy these things and he simply said "bummer" and didn't ask me again after that.

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Specializes in Med./Surg., Diabetes, Med. ICU, home hea.
I was still a nursing student at the time, but I had a DT patient in soft restraints who swore I was his sister. He kept asking me to go to the store and get a bottle of wine and a pack of smokes and that we could share them. Of course, me still being the nursing student tried and tried to re-orientate him, but it never worked. When asked "do you know where you are" he would answer "in outer space". I finally told him I wasn't 18 and couldn't buy these things and he simply said "bummer" and didn't ask me again after that.

Dang. Sounds like you met a learned master. Should have listened to him and gained wisdom!

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Dang. Sounds like you met a learned master. Should have listened to him and gained wisdom!

not sure what you mean

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Specializes in Family Nurse Practitioner.

When I was in nursing school I had a patient at the nursing home who was convinced that she could communicate with one of the news anchors on TV. She wanted me to tune the TV to "channel 13" so she could talk to the news anchor.

I also had a post menopausal old lady think she was pregnant. I had mentioned the word 'positive' in a sentence and she answered"I'm pregnant?" I reassured her that she was not, much to her relief.

A couple months ago I had a little old lady convinced that I had stolen one of her get well cards cards. Every time I brought my computer to the doorway she would point toward the door and ask for her card back. She was starting to get aggressive about it too. I pointed to the shelf where she had 2 cards on display and said "I see two cards over there, believe me I'm not interested in taking your cards."

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